Have you ever seen a dragon rage? It was only once in my long, and very eventful, life. They tore across the land with fire and with awe filling every breath, every wing beat.

Every screaming roar.

Each time a roar echoed, fire followed. Trees, homes, people…all turned to ash as dragonfire clung to them until even the ground burned before slowly, ever so slowly, faded away. To call what was left scorched, would be an understatement.

I was much younger then, but still old as far as angels went. The one who stopped the beast was not an angel, but rather a human.

From what I found amidst the ash-turned dirt during the investigation afterwards, she raged and ravaged the land to spread the carnage in her heart. Her nest was overturned by treasure hunters and the eggs were torn apart for the shells.

I can still remember that day so long ago, clear as the day as we now stood, as we watched them bring bags of feathers from my fallen brothers and sisters.

That day, the dragon mother raged. She brought chaos, pain, and the same loss she felt to every person unlucky enough to survive. She, a bringer of destruction, was stopped by a human woman, too weak to have survived even a stray breath.

Blackie tugged on my feathers again. “What do you want to do?”

          It was not a hard decision, in all honesty the right choices never are. The decisions that are hard to make are the ones that make you lose something important. In this case, the only thing I would lose by making the right choice, was my hatred. Even so…

          “I am an archangel of heaven, even retired.”

          “So, we don’t kill them.” He growled at me, “That didn’t stop them.”

          “Well, these pitiful mortals aren’t angels, are they?” With a dry chuckle I felt a smirk come to my face. “But…”

          “But?”

“Let’s just say, the guidebook on bringing sinners to repent is a little more loose than the one on protecting the innocent.”

“Do you see the irony on bring a demon along to beat up ‘sinners’?”

          “ ‘And with an angel on the right hand and a demon on the left, the sinners were given a choice for whom they may yet serve. Will they choose the peace and kindness from which Heaven only may bring? Or shall they choose the everlasting Hell from which only the Darkness springs?’ ”

          “The guidebook on sinners repenting?”

          “Yep, wrote all of it myself. What do you think?”

          “Wordy.”

          “I know, really sounds pious and inspiring doesn’t it?”

          He ignored me and we began our plan.

 

 

          “Steve, do you feel chills?”

“Eh, probably just the blood loss. Don’t mind it, I’m sure it’s fine.”

          Hunched from years of labor, the “doctor” kindly patted his rattle patient on his wounded shoulder. “Doctor” Steve looked around at the half-mummified band of bandits and nodded to himself in satisfaction. Almost all of the mostly dead and lightly wounded would probably survive again. He really admired their tenacity, especially since he was actively trying to kill half of them.

“Steve, sorry if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t this be patched?”

“The bleeding will stop eventually, just keep it in the water so it’ll get nice and clean.”

“Oh, okay”

The rest of them looked at the happily nodding new boy with various degrees of pity and schadenfreude. The rest knew that to survive meant doing the opposite of what the “doctor” said. He was oddly specific at times too.

“Hey! I just said, do not apply pressure to that wound and sew it shut with a sterilized needle to help close it and then cauterize it for good measure! Stop that!”

“Sorry doc”

“Where did you even find a needle in this endless pile of feathers?”

“Not doc had it.” The errant bandit rebelling to get actual medical attention threw out into the fray a thin younger man with wide, honest eyes. The most untrustworthy type.

“Not doc, stop that.”

“Sure, doc. Whatever you say.” He gave a wide, honest smile.

“…suspicious little basket of lard aren’t ya…”

“Did you say something doc?”

“No. but I’m watchin’ ya, ya twisted little hoarding sneaker you..”

As soon as his back was turned, the “not a doctor” rolled his wide, honest eyes and narrowed them back into normal, slightly annoyed eyes. He grabbed the needle out of the hand of the idiot who ratted him out and skillfully stitched him up.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s the greatest doctor to have gotten kicked out of medical school I’d let you lot die.” He half muttered to himself.

“And if it weren’t for the fact that you know some medicine, we’d have killed you for trying to save that angel.”

The young man just smiled, wide, and honest as the sun, as he jabbed to needle roughly into the man’s arm.

          “Did you see that?!” The scout jumped, screeching, which caused the rest of the small encampment to jump as well.

          “What?!?”

          A little white bunny hopped into the camp, clearly domesticated.

          “…a rabbit?”

          “A bunny!” All heads turned to the band’s swordsman, a stoic and cold man, who had just squealed like a child.

          He looked back at them all with confusion, certain he hadn’t said a word. His eyes tried to explain, but the rest of the eyes looking at him showed only the plummeting remains of their respect for him.

          “No even man enough to own it…” another man muttered, much to his own surprise.

          “Yeah, who cares if he calls them bunnies, I say all dogs are puppies!” another chimed in, unbenounced to himself.

          “Yeah, Yeah!” The boy enthusiastically nodded, his arm still in the increasingly red water, “and they’re ponies no matter how big!”

                    He was ignored.

          “You’re all jumping at shadows.” The leader finally spoke, looking down on all of his men. “Everyone knows that bunnies are the cutest are most harmless of all of the realms’ creatures.”

          He froze, wondering how the last sentence came to be when his mouth wasn’t moving. Sadly, the idiots he keeps didn’t notice.

          “…Do you think the boss hit his head as we were running?”

          “Well don’t jus stand there! Absolutely do not, under any circumstances, sit him down as look to see if his pupils are the same size.”

          “And make sure he stays awake with no rest while someone doesn’t keep an eye on him to make sure he’s okay?”

          “Exactly, you’re learning quick, you creepy son of a mushroom”

          Wide and honest, he smiled as “he” said “Maybe petting the bunny will help him feel better!”

          “Not the not doc too!”

          “It’s spreading!”

          “Kill it!”

          “Now, now, there’s no need for that dear children.”       

          “No…......”

          The camp went silent as the “bunny” seemed to waver like the air on a road on a hot and clear day, exposing the beautiful and terrible lady of their recent nightmares. White as the driven snow from head to toe, the lady with golden eyes smiled.